HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday, May 23, 2022, he is not in favor of imposing border restrictions to counter the possible entry or spread of the monkeypox virus in the country.
Duque said he has already ordered the Bureau of Quarantine to impose stringent symptom screening to passengers coming from countries where cases of monkeypox have been detected.
He said he is also in constant coordination with the World Health Organization with regards to the virus, which has so far been detected in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States of America (USA).
READ: EXPLAINER: What is monkeypox and where is it spreading?
According to the WHO, monkeypox is transmitted through lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding.
It has an incubation of around six to 13 days but this could also range from five to 21 days.
Among the symptoms of the infection are headache, fever, swollen lymph nodes, body pains and weakness.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is still more transmissible than monkeypox.
"It’s still the Covid that's more transmissible because of several ways of transmission. Aside from the droplet, you can also have the airborne... There's also contact transmission," he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.
“For monkeypox, the most common human-to-human mode of transmission is only respiratory droplets, so within three feet of talking to each other without any face mask,” he added.
Solante urged the public to follow the minimum public health standards not only to prevent getting infected with coronavirus, but also as a safety measure against monkeypox. (SunStar Philippines)